SPX: End of Day One

I bailed at about 5 p.m., deciding to head back home to Arlington instead of staying with Tim in the hotel. That would’ve been fun but I was (and am) very tired. So I’m missing the Ignatz, which I’m fine with.

I did sit in most of the panel on YA and children’s comics. Some interesting comments, especially about how traditional book publishers know how to get their books shelved where kids can actually get to them (in other words, in the children’s department of a bookstore) and comic publishers don’t. (This was part of the reported problems with the Minx books.) Also that most comic publishers put “all ages” on books aimed toward, well, all ages, which includes children. Traditional book publishers know about age groups.

I thought all of that was interesting, that publishers that usually work in prose are better at getting comics into the hands of kids than comic book publishers are.

But the general consensus was that kids like comics. I’m waiting for the day when we start reading articles with headlines like “Comics: They’re not just for adults anymore.”

It remained very crowded throughout the day, which is good for the show but bad for browsing. I spent my allotment of money pretty quickly though (I have a few dollars left for minicomics). All in all, it was a great — if exhausting — day.